Phantom Voices...

I have voices in my head much of the time these days.

 
I know that will not surprise some of my critics. 

Here's the deal: my iPhone and my hearing aids are connected via special sorcery code-named "Blue Tooth". So if I walk past you without notice or seem distracted, I may be listening to unseen phantoms like James Carville or Al Frankin or Rachel Maddow with whom I mostly agree, or it might be conservatives like the Bulwark or Lincoln Project folks challenging me in the ether.
I like to think that I have been a bit of a "moral rebel" in my 73 years. That does NOT mean I have always been right, but it does mean that, to stand for what I thought was right, I have been willing to risk being disapproved or even shunned by friends or family. 
At least once it involved a little physical danger. A few decades ago a young man stopped me to thank me for something that happened in the 1960s at West Rome High School. I really didn't remember it clearly but I recognized it and was glad to think that even as a teen I might have sometimes been that "moral rebel". The guy is two or three years younger than me and says he was being bullied by some older boys in the restroom when I came into room and saw what was going on and demanded the guys leave him alone. 
I had had some models. I had seen my Mother stick up for Martin Luther King when a conversation with some other family members turned harsh. I knew my Daddy had been willing to watch church-members move to the "Southern" off-shoot of our denomination because of our church's (actually pretty timid at the time) openness to integration. 
I had myself been called "n****r-lover" by classmates at good ol' WRHS (some of those very guys would be appalled to be reminded here fifty-odd years later!) 
During those years it became clear to me that the Democratic Party more closely matched my beliefs than the party most of my family and friends supported. Despite attending a very conservative and overwhelmingly Republican college, I helped organize a Young Democrats club and have since worked in and out of the party for moderate to progressive candidates like RFK, HHH, Carter, Gore, Clinton, Obama, Hillary, and Biden. Usually, in political terms at least, I have been in the minority among my friends and relatives. That's why I named this weblog "Alone On A Limb."
I have had no choice the last five years but to blatantly and vociferously oppose the politics of the majority of my family, school and church friends, and just every day associates here in Northwest Georgia. It has cost me several relationships. I have been dumbfounded trying to 1) understand how folks I otherwise admired could support pure evil and 2) find a way to calmly and lovingly interact with those whose beliefs I abhor, while remaining true to myself and my own beliefs. I have failed miserably at the second more than once. Staying calm and loving, I mean. 

That brings us back to the voices in my head. I listen to a lot of podcasts as I drive around, or as I work in the garden, or hike through the woods.
Since the Lincoln Project fell apart recently, former LP podcaster Ron Steslow has become a favorite. His spin-off Politicology has so far been some of the most thought provoking and actually helpful listening I've done. Two of his first guests have been Celeste Headlee (who has had the honor of interviewing me about storytelling on "On Second Thought" on GPB) and Dr. Catherine Sanderson. If you get a chance give these two sessions a listen; I think you will be glad you did. (Click on the pictures to reach the links.)

Sanderson is the chair of Psychology at Amherst College and the author of Why We Act: Turning Bystanders Into Moral Rebels. She talks with Ron Steslow about why Trump was able to exert control on the Republican party, how to recognize leaders who will stand up for what’s right—and what we can do to become moral rebels. 

Headlee is a longtime public radio host and joins host Steslow to discuss the science and history behind human communication, share keys to unlock deeper conversations, and explain how critical empathy is for our ability to listen and connect. She is the author of We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter.